Queen Latifah has been a benevolent ruler - using the power of her voice to influence the world for more than three decades.

Demanding respect as rapper, actor, and model in the entertainment industry, which historically hasn’t been diverse or equitable business for everyone. She’s continued breaking barriers as brand ambassador for CoverGirl, reminding people why she’s truly the Queen.

And now, she’s empowering the next generation of women to do the same with her latest initiative, The Queen Collective.

Queen Latifah, Procter & Gamble, and Tribeca Studioshave partnered together, creating a program that aims to accelerate gender and racial equality behind the camera. This push to opening doors for women through mentoring, production support, and creating distribution opportunities content for the next generation of multicultural female directors has the potential to create a massive shift in Hollywood.

“Generally, a movie hires around 150 people. That’s 150 jobs that can be filled by women, women of various backgrounds, and men of course. I’d like to see my cast and crew look like the world. I don’t want to look out, and just see one type of person,"Queen Latifah said at the press roundtable discussion during Tribeca Film Festival weekend.

Although there have been more women, and diversity in media, statistics show the needle hasn’t moved much. According to Women And Hollywood, from 2007 to 2018 only 28 percent of films were led or co-led by women, 15.5 percent of them featured an underrepresented lead or co-led, and out of the top-grossing 100 films, only four percent comprised of female directors.[/tweet_quote]

To bolster those low numbers, The Queen Collective picked B. Monet and Haley Elizabeth Anderson for the first cohort. The two directors had their films premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, and exclusively streamed on Hulu. Monet’s documentary film, Ballet After Dark, tells the story of a woman who was sexually assaulted, but finds healing and purpose through dance. Anderson’s documentary film, If There Is Light, follows the journey of a family navigating New York City’s shelter system.

She even elaborating on why she decided to follow the story of a sexually abused survivor.

“Unfortunately, a lot of women of color had traumatic experiences, but we never see ourselves as victors. So, hopefully, this film does that because, for me, it’s very important to not just show women of color as victims, but as victors.”

Monet and Anderson say they learned how to be vocal, and truly trust themselves — two lessons they were taught from the Queen, herself.

Anderson said that this program not only validated her as an artist, filmmaker, but as a boss. She told me, “It’s more of an attitude. That it’s not being bossy, but it’s an attitude of trusting yourself, and trusting that you don’t have to say, ‘I’m so sorry,’ and I say sorry a lot and I’m learning not to and to speak up for myself.”

After the press conference, Queen Latifah, and I sat down for a one-on-one interview discussing how she decides what projects she aligns herself with, lessons she’s currently learning right now, and of course, I shoot my shot, and audition as ‘Khadijah’ for the possible Living Single reboot.

Queen Collective films Ballet After Dark and If There Is Light began streaming exclusively on Hulu now.